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rear speakers installed, the sound picture is complete. Its so very good , the sound picture is almost perfekt. I got bas, i got lots of mid bassss and perfekt highs.

Man i am so pleased with the install of hans acs. We did the tweeter front again of 1 door because the left tweeter was not perfektly aimed and installed the RM 6 boston speakers in the rear. We used the oem bmw basket where the speakers lies in. I would recommend you use this basket. Without it , it a lesser sound. We taped the speakers in the basket. So it sealed perfekly on the top. The bostons are just perfekly made for the bmw basket. Its a perfekt fit.

I wass blown away with the sound. I got almost no distorsion at full 4 x 6O watt volume.

Man i can recommend this to anyone. This is so much better dan the bmw oem HK system.

I have been following your install and advice because I am doing the same thing. The rest of my components arrived in the mail today (Boston 6.5 pro series, JL Audio 12W3V2 sub; Kicker KX600.4 amp, 6.5 JL Audio evolution coax). I will post pictures of the install and let you know how it sounds...........I can't wait........your posts have been raising my antisipations.

For the front 1" tweeter (Boston's), did he remove the tweeter from the boston housing and insert into stock OEM housing/bracket? It looks like that would work, then you could use the stock tweeter bracket to mount in the pillar (side mirror panel). If this was not the case, could you please explain how the tweets were installed at that location. Thanks.

In a sedan the tweeters oem are in the mirror housing. In a coupe there lower on the place where you open the door. So you could say that sedans have a better place. The oem mirror housings are just perfektly placed to provide music to your ears

Yes he removed the housing. There is a special mount included with the bostons to do this. I dont know exacly how he placed them in the housing. I saw him yesterday opening up the mirror housing to aim the tweeter a bit better but he did not fully open the mirror housing, he just fiddle a bit from the outside to the inside. You can always mail him.

I know you have to remove the door panels but i think you already knew that

Rome,
No, I removed the oem bracket, and pushed the boston tweeter in the foam in the mirror housing. I angled it a little bit towards the driver position, and fixed the position with a piece of strong tape. The hole in the oem foam is pretty tight, so the tweeter stays in place pretty nice. The tape is just there to make sure it doesn't move while driving or so ...

OK, I finally finished my install. I did need to purchase the Peripheral Ven4 balanced-to-unbalanced differential converter in order to eliminate the alternator whine I was getting through my new speakers from the new amp. I am running my mid speakers in both the front and rear doors from the stock amp. I also upgraded the rear deck speakers with JL coax, but since the rear speaker outs from the stock amp had the signals low passed, i ran the front woofer stock speaker outs to these speakers. Result, perfect midrange filler sound.

I installed the Boston acoustic 6.5 2-way components in the front just like Pmmeke did. Did have to use a dremel tool on the existing ring mount to allow for the bolts to secure properly behind the door pannels. Also installed the JL Audio 12W3V2 sub in trunk and fired through the ski hole. The BA tweeter just fit into the stock front tweeter mounting bracket. The sound is awesome. I can't even distort the Bostons before my ears start to hurt from the volume. This was a great learning experience for me. I have posted some pics. Thanks for all of your help and inspiration . You guys are the reason why this is the best formum for E46 cars.

Well, I tried to post some jpg pics but they show up too large. Does anyone know how to scale pictures so that they won't show up so large on the forum sight? I also have the same problem with a sig pic I'm working on. Thanks.

Boston Acoustic 6.5 Pro Series 2 way components in stock woofer/tweet location. Have to mount the woofer to the outside of door and use BA grill cover (or cut out metal in the door because magnet is too large). Tweeter will fit into the stock tweeter bracket.

I hope you guys don't mind me waking this thing up from midevil times.

I just spent some time at Good Guys, only to hear the exact opposite of everything I've been reading here and in another thread (a/d/s install). I was even looking at BA 6.5 components, but the sales guy and the installer said that you can't replace any of the OEM speakers or amp with aftermarkets unless you change out the HU. The only workaround for a sub was to install a powered sub.

Anyways, I want to thank you for doing all this research for the rest of us. I may end up going back to buy the 6.5's, as they're on clearance now. It appears GG is no longer going to carry BA gear.

Yea, I don't know about the HK system, but my stock head unit works great with the aftermarket stuff (just need to be sure to account for the balanced differential signals it puts out). I thought the HK would also but since I don't have that........

Yes I have the HK upgrade. I'm still researching costs related to installation. Components won't be an issue, but the install sure will be a *****. I want it to look as stock as possible, especailly with my sand interior. I can handle hardware installation and wiring, but getting everything dialed in and sounding kick *** is way out of my league. Do you guys have any suggestions in this area? Circuit City and Good Guys are out.

The boys at Goodguys or whoever told you that you couln't use an aftermarket amp or speakers with the stock HU are full of ****e. I got the same line of BS from one of the installers in my area that I spoke with.

What you need to do is use the VEN4 by Peripheral. This will convert the differential signal speaker leads from the H.U. to line level RCA type that will plug right into an aftermarket amp. I got mine at Tweeter for about $40 but it's available online as well.

As far as the stock HU unit goes (at least the non- HK unit I have) well, it's not the best sound wise. Using a quality HU will definitely give you better sound. I chose to keep it because I wanted the stock, fit flush to the dash, BMW aesthetic look. I've upgraded the front and rear speakers as well as added a sub and amp. My system sounds 1000X better than stock in my opinion.

Check out David Bagby's guide to upgrading. I don't have the link but if you search for it will come up. It's value cannot be measured if you're going to do the job yourself.